BARN- YARD MANURE. 165 



The different manurial substances will be 

 discussed in the following order : Stable manure 

 and cattle dung night soil swamp muck 

 leaves wood and coal ashes marl green 

 manuring, and liquid manures. 



Stable or Barn-Yard Manure consists of the 

 solid excrements and urine of horses and cows, 

 mixed with the substances used as bedding. 

 Like other substances used as manures., this has 

 two values : one in its natural fresh condition 

 the other when it is properly fermented. This 

 manure in its natural condition contains every 

 thing necessary for plant food, in an insoluble 

 condition ; but as every constituent is in a finely 

 divided state, the action of the carbonic acid 

 generated during fermentation will render silica, 

 phosphoric acid and potash in a condition for 

 assimilation by plants. The nitrogen in organic 

 matter, also, becomes changed to actual am- 

 monia. The value of the straw or other litter 

 can be readily calculated from the Tables on 

 pages 82 and 85. The excrements of animals 

 when fermented, being more active as a manure 

 than when in the natural tate, prove con- 

 clusively the advantages gained by fermentation. 

 The value of these manures is influenced by 

 other causes. If the food is very rich, the man- 

 ure will be rich in proportion. The excrements 

 of a growing animal are not nearly as valuable 



